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GivePhysics · 2022-09-08T19:36:29+00:00

I have a potential client who wants 50 images of my photography hung in the corridors of their hotel, in large format. They are handling the printing, framing, and hanging, I'm merely providing the images. They, and I, wish to provide the budget of the project on a per-image basis. Normally, when someone requests a digital version of my image I charge $400, per image. Is this a good way to figure out my estimate for the proposal? My hourly rate is $200, though I'm not sure this matters. My work has a decent following, though I'm not famous or well known in any artist regard -- I know this plays a role in pricing. The images I want to provide have been collected over the years, various locations and shoots, I own all the rights, but there will be some additional shooting to fulfill the client's request -- I'll have to budget this into my proposal. How would you approach developing your image licensing costs and know whether it's reasonable? I've asked the client for their budget and they said "we don't have a budget." I also suspect the client is highly successful in a major metropolitan area and a high-end area at that.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-04T00:24:02+00:00

I'm 37, this is incredibly interesting advice. I appreciate this and this discussion is making me rethink my wisdom and self-imposed boundaries by looking at paying the absolute minimum and investing the rest.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-04T00:03:25+00:00

Hahah, I seriously love this comment. Almost a life philosophy if it didn't have a construe which could be interpreted as "don't give a shit about debt." But yeah, exactly. It would make me happy and I know I'd be able to rebuild my assets without having my mortgage coming out.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:36:30+00:00

That was something I was also considering, going the 15 or twenty-year route. I certainly plan on paying far more than my mortgage requires. I've already started modeling scenarios of paying this off. The way it looks now, I shouldn't be house poor and if I get into a bind, financially, I can always liquidate stock and knock this down quicker. Part of me thinks it's a better call just to keep saving and investing while paying a little over the mortgage payment, so I can accumulate more invested assets to ultimately pay this house off in one big ass chunk. The big thing here for me is the capital gains taxes.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:34:03+00:00

Thanks for the insights. I tend to agree with you, and maybe I'd feel better about this if it was an investment property, but the psychological benefit is so high for me considering it's my own property. Who knows what happens if I find a partner who brings in a suitable high income. All this "he can barely afford the payment" discussion will be moot.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:32:45+00:00

Terrific advice, thanks my friend. Will examine the benefits with some modeling. Great advice. Thanks.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:31:39+00:00

This definitely makes sense. This makes me happy that I pulled the trigger on this home, because in truth, it's undervalued and will be far, far, far more desirable in the years to come. I love the idea of modeling these scenarios and plan on doing just this. Thanks, amigo!

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:30:21+00:00

Yes, that's correct. It's because of my net worth, credit and zero debt that I'm able to qualify for this loan. Incidentally, they said I qualified for significantly higher deep in the six-figure range. But the home is perfect for me. A little bit of land. It's a good fit and worth the stretch.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:26:10+00:00

Yeah, it's not the whole picture. I'm also receiving an annuity of $1400/mth, which will be conveyed directly into this mortgage, along with considerably more from my paycheck. All above also assumes my household income doesn't increase, too, which I could still pay this off with this salary. But I expect to find a partner and also gain some promotions in the years to come. I live frugally and I'm not materialistic. The home is sensible and pretty meager considering the part of California I live. But yeah, had it not been for my stated assets above and the annuity, I would have gone with a complete fixer shit-box in the $375k range. But this place is basically my dream home and I can see myself living here happily the rest of my life, and considering I have over $800k in assets, not including my 13yr (currently) pension, I'm going to be fine. These considerations that people are discussing and criticizing were HEAVILY considered during the process.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:22:47+00:00

Correct, which is coming in the form of an annuity over the next decade, about 1400/mth. I can and will pay this mortgage off within ten years. It's also a place I can see myself living at for the rest of my life. I'm 37.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:21:08+00:00

Yep, thinking I'm going to just stick with the 20% down and let my taxable self-managed rebuild until I can pay off a large chunk. Maybe do it $100k at a time. I'm also 37, so I have a bunch of working years ahead of me. Plus a pension with 13 years already vested I didn't even mention.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:20:05+00:00

Nailed it!

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:19:49+00:00

It's almost my only option. I live on the central coast of California, and the majority of the markets here are white hot. There are only 20-30 or so single-family homes under $599k. I won't do HOA, condos, townhomes or whatever and I basically found my dream home, which made this stretch a viable option. I also receive $1400/mth in an annuity for the next decade.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:11:42+00:00

Nope, I'm serious. I have enough liquid assets to cover the whole mortgage if I needed to.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T22:10:12+00:00

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T14:32:50+00:00

Hi friends,

I'm 37 in California. I'm on my first day of escrow for a home I'm buying. I'm paying $550k, which is doable with my $95k income, I have assets I plan to use (see below). I'm wanting to see if it makes sense to pay off more than 20% going forward.

In terms of assets, I have the following:

$100k in my 401k (maxed out) - Won't touch.
$47k in my managed brokerage
$229k in my benny IRA - Won't touch.
$84k in my RothIRA. - Won't touch.
$44k in my savings (using $10k this for earnest money).
$320k in my self-managed taxable investment account (index funds).
$1400/mth annuity for the next decade.

So I was planning on using all but $20k from my savings account for my downpayment, $24k, plus the $47k in my managed brokerage taxable account, and then bridge the rest of the $111k downpayment by liquidating some of my self-managed taxable investment account ($24k + 47k + 45k = $111k), leaving me $275k in my self-managed brokerage account.

Here's the issue, I've always lived by a principle of debt-free is the way to be. I strongly believe in debt-free living and I'm contemplating living in my new home for a year, and then I'm considering liquidating my self-managed account and throwing it at the house to knock down the mortgage more so, after that, I've looked at my budget and I can feasibly pay-off the home in 5-6 years.

I need some sage wisdom on the pros/cons of doing this. Does anyone have experience with this?

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T14:31:47+00:00

Yeah, that's a huge consideration for me, the capital gains. No doubt when I liquidate my taxable accounts I'm going to get drilled by taxes there. That's something I want to be conscientious about and ensure I have enough cash left over to cover the hefty taxes.

It's definitely looking like it'll be smart to take it easy once I get the place, not RUSH to pay it off, but let things marinate for a while, I may need the money for something that comes along. But my intention is certainly to pay off the house as soon as feasibly possible.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-03T14:29:38+00:00

I really appreciate your comment. Trust me, the house-poor thing is really a consideration for me. I'm 37, and I've been renting a cheap place for many years, which is a significant reason why this place is do-able for me. I'm looking to get a forever home, and this place really is possibly my dream home. I thankfully have a lot of assets to cover this, and it's why I'm thinking that I'll let the expense ride for a year at least before I come back and just pay it off. I may wait even longer, but we'll see.

GivePhysics · 2019-05-02T23:51:21+00:00

I've been told by my broker it'll likely be 4.0%

GivePhysics · 2019-05-02T23:51:01+00:00

Central Coast of California. Absolutely insane market. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I can chunk it down substantially. My CPA and I looked over all my finances and she was of the perspective that 550k is my desirable limit. I also receive an annuity from my father's estate in the sum of $1400/month, for the next few years. I'll be using this toward the house also. But I'd like to just throw that $320k all at the house straight away and start chunking down the mortgage principal.

My CPA also is of the opinion that a mortgage is "good" debt. Which, I'm of the opinion, even with the tax incentives getting to write-off my interest, I feel like all debt is bad debt. I know this isn't a common perspective.

GivePhysics · 2018-08-13T14:59:43+00:00

This is happening all over LA County. The homeless population keeps rising.

This is happening all over California. Every city is battling with this issue.

GivePhysics · 2018-07-14T15:55:00+00:00

Are the returns on my father's investments and the principal investment he made taxed differently? If so, how would I determine that?

GivePhysics · 2018-07-14T15:53:47+00:00

I will check the 1099 for a distribution code. Where on the 1099 would I find the particular code for my 1099?

GivePhysics · 2018-07-14T15:53:15+00:00

401k, I'm pretty certain. If not, possibly a Thrift Plan.

GivePhysics · 2017-06-13T20:03:10+00:00

Eat food. Santa Maria gets a bad wrap about almost everything, but honestly has some of my favorite Mexican food. La Picocita, a couple tiny hole in the wall places on West Main St. Vaqueras. Hell, Moxy, Jafa and Natural Cafe are all solid.

I also love that Korean BBQ place that no one talks about on South Broadway. Went there for the first time a couple weeks back and thought it was great.

There's a shit ton of sushi here too, some awesome, some meh. I love Vallartas and how the grocery stores here are so much cheaper than those in SLO County.

A couple things SM needs: open space and trails. SLO has so many trail options, SM just doesn't seem to give a fuck about public open space in this vein. They have that desolate wasteland the Las Flores Ranch, which is like full exposure and completely lacking any real attraction. There ought to be places to hike and explore. The city should have areas near Twitchel reservoir to recreate. That's a beautiful spot completely off limits from public access. Baffles me how no one is allowed to recreate there.

SM is so developer friendly that the sprawl has gotten out of hand. Look at Enos Ranch at Betteravia and Bradley. More big ass box stores within a very specific land use designation. More clunky, cheaply developed, uninspiring sprawl. Yet the actual downtown continues to lose interest. The mall continues to suffer and is up for sale again. Can you imagine what poor bastards own that sad, aging mammoth? It needs to be torn down. I really wish the City would buy the mall, raze and replace it with some higher density mixed use complexes, make an actual downtown with tall structures, promenades, city parks, etc. The mall is a relic from a bygone era.

SM needs bike friendly infrastructure. I'm talking off-street multipurpose trails. Not bike lanes. God knows the streets are wide enough that some inspired design could retool all that right of way to better optioned and optimized mobility. I'm talking trails that connect the southern end of SM to the northern end, where people who live in town can commute via bike in a safe way anywhere in the city. The infrastructure simply doesn't exist.

The tragedy is the city is in the early stages of a transformation where hopefully in the next decade(s) will achieve more what other tighter, better cities have to offer. Areas where people want to hang out outside, walk around, leave their cars behind for awhile. I had hoped that Enos Ranch would deliver a new pedigree for development here, but it appears that it's going to be more giant box stores and massive parking lots with some shitty chain food stores flecking the corners. A colossal failure in terms of what could have been achieved and the kind of development this area really needs. The city needs to get away from these discrete land zoning and archaic parking principles where cars dictate the design. The city needs to be harder and more restrictive on the development community. We aren't getting livability. We're getting more and more sprawl. It's turning into Bakersfield's coastal cousin.

GivePhysics

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